Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence 10/09/07

When do the rights and privileges given to every United States citizen apply, and when do they not? Are there any situations where these rights should be taken away? It is easy to say that the standards written in the Declaration of Independence should always apply to every person, because they're a human being, and they deserve it, and no one ever has the right to take those rights away. However, things get a little touchy when things like crime and terrorism come into the picture. Then, we find ourselves, under the justification of fairness and law, able to take these rights away from people. I am not disagreeing with this system in the least bit, I simply think it's interesting that when you look deeper into situations like this, you find that there are always exception to the rule. We say that all men are created equal, and every person is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is when one human being tries to take these away from another that we take it upon ourselves to remove these rights from the person who committed the crime. This is the idea involved in terrorism and the trials resulting from the plane crashes into the World Trade Center in 2001, some of which trials are still going on. If you take these rights away from innocent human beings, essentially, you deserve to have these rights taken away from you.

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